There are a lot of different points of view when it comes to nudes in art, whether it be drawing, painting, sculpture, or photography. Certainly there are more opinions about it than there are types of nude art! Everyone is entitled to their own opinion – after all, our differences are what makes the world go round! And they certainly make for some lively conversations!
At a dinner with some of my female friends several years back, someone mentioned that they had been out to Mark’s Casual Elegance Photography website (at the time he was doing more family portraits, headshots, model portfolios and only the occasional boudoir or nude session). She stated that she had noticed “nudes” on his sight. One of my more reserved friends immediately exclaimed “Oh, NO!” in a somewhat alarmed fashion. Her comment was immediately drowned out by at least one other conversation that was taking place at the same time, as apparantly she was the only one who saw anything to exclaim about in the fact that Mark took nude photographs. Yet the exclamation has always stayed with me. I realize that for some reason the idea of taking a photograph of a nude human being leads to shock and indignation in certain individuals. But I just don’t get it.
So the little overshadowed comment stuck in my brain – puzzled me – made me wonder if my “what’s the big deal” attitude about artistic nudity was the unusual one! Was I the “odd man out” because my opinion is that the human form is art? Then we went to Paris!
While there we visited several museums. The Louvre, the Musee Rodin, and Musee D’Orsay to name just three. I loved visiting these museums! It was just so refreshing to stand and look at these unbelievably beautiful works of art with people who were exclaiming because of their beauty and not because they were nudes! A few of my favorites: Une Odalisque, and The Bather by Ingres, Renoir’s Large Nude, Manet’s Olympia, and my most favorite Rodin sculpture, The Kiss
So in Paris I found confirmation that I am not alone! There were scores of other people since the beginning of time who saw the human form as art. Of course I have always known this, but somehow the museums in Paris really made it hit home! In fact, the whole european experience is refreshing in that regard. So much more comfortable with nudity in general.
In going through my papers for this blog I found a quote that I had written down – although I failed to note where it came from, I think it sums up the way I see Mark’s photography so beautifully “The nude is classic, timeless, elemental, primal, and universal. Because we are all creatures of our own nakedness, it is the subject of ultimate empathy. Yet in the hands of an artist, that fleeting, imperfect, and fragile package that carries all of our souls gains a noble immortality and perfection that transcends its mere physicality.”
